Caring for Bromeliads

Looking for an easy indoor flowering plant? Try adding bromeliads to your collection.

These long blooming beauties require minimal care. Many bromeliads are epiphytes, naturally growing on trees and gathering nutrients and water from the environment, not by parasitizing the plants they live upon. You will find bromeliads at garden centers and florists mounted on boards, rocks or growing in well-drained potting or orchid mix.

Water the plants often enough to prevent the roots from drying out. Those bromeliads with a rosette of leaves that form a vase or tank absorb the water more efficiently through their leaves. So be sure to keep water in the leaf “tank” to keep these thriving.

Fertilize actively growing plants during the growing season with a dilute solution of flowering houseplant fertilizer. Once the flowers fade, the parent plant begins to decline. Don’t worry - new plants will soon appear.

A bit more information:  Divide and repot the young plants that form as the parent plant declines. Once these plants reach maturity they can be forced to flower. Place a piece of an apple and the plant in a sealed plastic bag for three days. Remove and wait for flowers to form.

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